On the first "yikes", the last paragraph is wrong. If Martin had shot Zimmerman, a Hispanic, there would be no media storm at all.

Actually, that last paragraph agrees with you in a way: if the roles had been reversed, it would have been less a media storm and simply the more routine process of sending another black guy to jail if not the chair ...

Although I tend to believe if the roles were reversed and Martin was trying to use the Stand Your Ground defense, there probably would be a media storm of some sort in that the framers of that law deep down probably didn't intend that it apply to people like Martin ...

Regardless, the radical right wing surely wouldn't be trying to pin his possible conviction on Obama, of all people ;-)

Problem is he WAS profiling and assuming Travon was guilty of something-and we KNOW by his comments (he had no kind words or even questions about Martin being there - already assumed his guilt). Had his comments not been so derogatory, we might have a different impression.

If it looks like a duck and quacks like a duck.. it's not a lovable kitten. Hope he gets the sheet sued out of him !

What you say about all of one party or the other is obviously true, Dave. But in general and on the whole the reps present a pretty systematic case for preserving supremacy for the affluent and the white. Sorry for the tautology. I don't know what you folks in KS are experiencing, but let me recount for you what has happened here in PA since the reps came to control all branches of government. First, since the reps have held the state legislature for many years, they ensured that their domination of the state house, and of the state's congressional delegation, would continue. The gerrymander here is a beauty to behold. My town is a democratic bastion in a sea of republican county voters. But the legislature has divided the city very carefully into four or five different districts so that we never, but never have a chance to elect a democrat.

In the world of taxation, the reps have arranged the system in the state so that we have a flat income tax. The guy who earns a million pays the same percentage as the guy who earns a couple of thousand. Even more insidiously, the state does not tax unearned income, so that the guy who makes a million in capital gains but has no earned income pays nothing at all. Still more insidiously, the state does tax interest income, so the poor bastard who has some money in a CD does pay tax on whatever measly return he gets on his money. But then the big boys who run the banks on behalf of the Republicans have made it irrelevant to tax interest because although they charge me 15% on my credit cards, they pay only a tenth of a percent on what I have in the bank.

In education the fundamentally racist--I don't know what else to call it--agenda is crystal clear. Our wonderful governor has cut state money to the public schools by something like 20%. At the same time, he has vouchered education in the state. The vouchers do not cover the full price of private or parochial schooling, but they do subsidize those parents who have enough money to make up the difference and so send their kids to a non-public school. The state also requires local school districts to pick up the tab for any student who enrolls in a cyber school. There again, only those kids who have parents with enough economic and cultural captain can avail themselves of the option. Meanwhile the urban schools are down the toilet. My town is raising the # of kids in elementary classrooms to 37 per room. They have cut school nurses, so that there is only one nurse per 4 schools. Next year they plan to cut all assistant principals in elementary schools. There is one counselor assigned for every 1000 kids, however that works out in numbers of schools. All this, keep in mind, in a social environment that is as challenged as they come. Last year my wife had a third of her class with special needs of one kind or another, most of them with behavioral problems, from autism to ADHD to severe neurological problems requiring medication, which often the parents could not get for their kids.

Meanwhile, the republican suburbs tax their way to a brighter future, so that the drop in state funding is a problem, but certainly not devastating. One of those districts provides a MBP for every kid in the district. Another one provides two aides per classroom. Those kids don't need the private or parochial school subsidies, although some avail themselves of a religious education at tax payer expense, something I think is plainly unconstitutional. So who does make use of the private school subsidies? The white parents in the city. The whole scheme is geared to resegregating the school system by making relatively more affluent white parents able to afford to send their kids to private schools, leaving the public schools to the rest of us blacks and Hispanics.

And all of that is part and parcel of the republican agenda. Gerrymander your way to a permanent legislative majority. Make wages expensive and capital free. Privatize whatever you can and then wring your hands when the result is resegregation. I hate to say it, but if the whole of the system that the republicans propose is not racist, classist, exclusionary, and fundamenally unfair, then lets bring back Jim Crow, cause at least those practices were not hypocritical.

I think the verdict was correct for the evidence provided by the prosecution. They couldn't prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Zimmerman did not act in self defense. That they couldn't prove that Zimmerman didn't feel feel threaten for great bodily harm.

Also, the prosecutors didnt provide a plausible narrative as to how this incident occured.

That's my thoughts.

Dave

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There are 10 kinds of people.Those that understand binary and those that don't.

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